Dido Still On My Mind

2019 has been quite a year for Dido. The release of her acclaimed album Still On Mind in March quickly led to her becoming the best selling UK solo female artist of the year, an achievement that came as she embarked on her first tour in 15 years. Dido is set to release a special deluxe edition of Still On My Mindon November 15th (BMG).

Reinvigorated and confident, Dido returns from a six-year absence with her sparkling fifth album, Still on My Mind. Following 2013's neon-washed Girl Who Got Away, this set features her liveliest, catchiest production since early-era breakthroughs No Angel and Life for Rent, and soundtracks familiar themes of love, loss, desire, and – as the mother of a young son – family. Anchored by her yearning and ever-ethereal vocals, the LP delivers on the promising glimmers that were teased on its cool (but ultimately sedate) predecessor, successfully synthesizing the spirit of her early hybrid sound with updated late-2010s sheen.

Life for Rent doesn't offer anything that drastically different from Dido's debut album, No Angel – the dance beats are marginally fresher, the production is clean and new – but this predictibility is actually rather refreshing because the album delivers on its promise, unlike many sophomore affairs in 2003. That its promise is rather modest doesn't really matter, since Dido is successful at modest songs. She has a sweet, warm voice and a knack for tuneful modern folk-pop that sounds intimate while being confidently catchy and nicely atmospheric. In other words, it retains the feel of No Angel and its two big hits, "Here With Me" and "Thank You," without ever rewriting either song, but contributing songs like "White Flag," "Stoned," "Life for Rent," and "Do You Have a Little Time," which are nearly as memorable.

Differences between Dido albums can be measured on a small sliding scale. She never changes her style but she does change her sound, however subtly. Girl Who Got Away, her fourth album and first in five years, differs from its predecessor, the meticulously woven Safe Trip Home. That was an album tailored for domesticity, while Girl Who Got Away is a soundtrack for a night out, going so far as to make space for a guest spot for Kendrick Lamar, the alt-crossover rapper du jour of 2013. Dido's night on the town isn't quite a dingy pub crawl: it's tasting menus and craft cocktails where the crowds bustle but never jostle. Sophistication is a given, but there's a surprising undercurrent of sensuality that runs throughout the album, a sleekness that suggests a distillation of the stiff club-soul of Elle Goulding, a shimmer that blends quite seamlessly with Dido's sculpted songs.

5 CDs full of beautiful music to enjoy together, an ideal gift for Mother's Day, with recent hits plus the classics of world artists including Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Santana, Alicia Keys, Art Garfunkel, Whitney Houston and others.